EVERLASTING QUESTION 107 



At such a time the indifference of the 

 landed class would be fatal ; whether a 

 gentleman personally cares for hunting or 

 not is quite beside the question ; if he has 

 a place in a hunting country, he must — 

 unless he be lost to all sense of decency — 

 have some regard for the customs of the 

 district in which he lives. So far as 

 hunting is concerned, these customs from 

 old - established practice constitute un- 

 written laws, to which long consent gives 

 moral authority, dependent only on the 

 continued support of public opinion. 



Even setting aside the relative import- 

 ance of the interests concerned, and looking 

 at the whole matter from a purely sporting- 

 point of view, it would seem almost 

 ludicrous to institute any serious com- 

 parison between the virile, healthy, sport 

 of hunting, giving pleasure to hundreds at 

 a time, calling into play every quality of 

 manly pluck and endurance, attended by 

 j ust that spice of danger that marks every 

 true sport, and such a degenerate, selfish 

 pastime as covert shooting, with its easy 



